


Xander's Collar

by Raikana



Series: Moonlight Boys [7]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Collar, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of Eating Disorder, One-Shot, Original Characters - Freeform, Short, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 07:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19762978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikana/pseuds/Raikana
Summary: Xander upgrades from a choker to a collar.





	Xander's Collar

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kikiki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikiki/gifts).



> Just a fluffy short with two of the boys. Maybe once I have more in the series, I'll try to wrangle them into chronological order, but right now it's just a collection of everything in this universe.

Xander looked up from the dishes as he heard Asahina’s familiar footsteps heading down the stairs. He set the soapy plate back in the water and turned to give Asahina a gentle smile. “Did they give you any problems?”

Asahina shook his head and scooped up one of the dish towels. A few hairs fell across his eyes and Asahina reached up to push them back into place. Even though it was late at night and Asahina had been semi-retired for most of a year, his salary-man hairstyle was still intact. Xander took great pleasure in running his fingers through it at night, messing it up before bed.

“Thanks for the help.” Xander picked up one of the last few plates and started scrubbing again, now that it had been back in the dirty water.

“No problem,” Asahina replied, his voice as quiet as ever. Xander glanced down, entranced as Asahina picked up the dishes with his slender fingers, drying them and putting them away. They both worked in silence for a few minutes, Xander washing and Asahina drying.

Xander passed the last of the silverware to Asahina and turned the tub on end to let the dirty water drain away. “Do you want me to model for you, Ichirou-kun?”

Asahina focused on the silverware, rubbing the towel over them more than strictly necessary, his cheeks and ears turning pink. “...modeling or _modeling_?”

Xander laughed and leaned over to kiss Asahina’s cheek before nipping at his earlobe, savoring the shiver that ran through Asahina’s body. “ _Modeling_ sounds fun, but I think for tonight, regular modeling is fine... I think I’d rather have the boys at a sleepover before I do _modeling_ again.”

Asahina nodded once and put the silverware away. “I’ll go get my paints.”

“I’ll do my hair and meet you in the craft room, then.” To most people, Asahina’s curt nod would probably come off as impatient or even rude, but Xander knew from experience that Asahina was just embarrassed and he would loosen up again once he started painting.

Xander pulled off his apron and hung it on the peg next to Asahina’s before he headed into the downstairs bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror and pulled off his over-sized sweater, running his hands over his ribs. Maybe it was just his imagination, but he thought they were less prominent than they had been a few days ago.

He still had bags under his green eyes, but they weren’t as dark as they had been during his worst days. His cheeks had begun to fill out as well. They didn’t look as hollow and skeletal as they did even a few months ago.

Xander tugged his braid forward over his shoulder and tugged the hairband off, unraveling the heavy rope with his fingers until his fox-colored hair hung down his back and over one shoulder, still wavy from being in a braid since his bath last night. He picked up his brush and started brushing out the waves as best he could. He sometimes thought about cutting his hair back up to shoulder-length again, but he had too many good memories associated with his hair.

The peculiar fox coloring near the tips was from when he had first started dating Asahina. Asahina had seen his ginger body hair and asked Xander to see his natural hair color. It had still been a month or two later before Xander actually did it. He had let his roots grow out and visited a salon to try to have the black dye bleached out, but the bleach worked _too_ well and left the ends of his hair a pale blonde with a ring of black between it and his natural red.

Xander finally got his hair as straight as he could without taking another bath and letting it dry straight. He pulled his sweater back on to hide his too-skinny torso and tugged his hair free, letting it fall down his back, almost down to his waist by now. He reached up and touched the black choker around his neck, trailing his fingers over the Celtic cross pendant hanging from the front. His thoughts settled as he felt the raised lines of the knotwork under his fingers. _I have a family that loves me. I’m not the same person I was as a boy_.

Xander opened the bathroom door and walked over to Asahina’s craft room, smiling as he saw his stoic boyfriend standing behind an easel with a selection of pain tubes laid out on a low table next to him. Asahina turned to look at Xander and his face softened. His mouth curved in the gentlest of smiles and he watched Xander with a loving gaze. Xander stepped over to Asahina and cupped the back of his head, resting their foreheads together. “Thank you for always being there, Asahina-kun.”

“Mm...” Asahina’s eyes slid shut as he leaned against Xander, Xander’s thumb brushing the small hairs at the nape of his neck. “Not a problem...”

Xander tilted his head to one side, closing the last few inches between them to give Asahina a soft kiss, their lips barely touching, though they both lingered in the kiss. Xander finally broke the kiss and pulled away from Asahina. He saw the pink rising again on Asahina’s cheeks and felt more than a little warm himself as he sat on the fainting couch. He fell into a comfortable position, reclined against the raised arm. He pulled his hair forward over his shoulder and tucked his legs up under him so he curled in the corner, his head pillowed on one bony arm. He smiled across the room at Asahina and gave him a thumbs up. The smell of paint filled the room, even with the ventilation fan blowing the fumes out the window.

* * *

While Asahina was out running errands the next day, Xander pulled a leather collar out of his nightstand, running his fingers over the smooth surface. It had just come in the mail a few days ago, but it was missing a few personal touches, still.

He walked down the stairs and poked his head into the living room to check on the boys. They were both still sitting at the coffee table, bent over their personalized lessons, working hard to get ready to start school in the spring. Xander smiled at their tutor, one of his half-brothers who had been working as a teacher until his school fired him. “I’ll just be in the craft room if you need me.”

Reo nodded before bending back over the table to help Ikku and Sosa with their schoolwork. Xander turned and walked into the craft room, staring at the well-organized drawers full of tools and supplies. He wasn’t sure where to start looking for the tools he needed, but given how much of a renaissance man Asahina was, Xander had no doubt that he’d have the right tools, or at least something to get the job done safely. He set his collar down on a table and reached up to unhook his choker, laying it out next to the collar.

First things first, he’d need a way to open the ring holding his pendant onto the choker. But he knew Asahina had dabbled in jewelry so he definitely had the right tools for that. He hadn’t seen Asahina do any sort of leather embossing, but he had seen the hand-stitched leather seats Asahina had made for a set of stools, so he hoped there would be something with the leather tools for embossing. Xander started pulling open the plastic drawers to find what he wanted.

* * *

Xander jumped a little when he heard the front door open and shut, barely audible in normal circumstances, but the condo was exceptionally quiet. Ikku and Sosa had just finished their lunches and were hopefully hard at work studying. Either that or they had fallen asleep once their bellies were full. Ikku should be old enough to not need a nap, but Sosa still tended to doze off after lunch unless he was busy with something.

Xander looked down at his handiwork and wrapped the collar around his neck, buckling it before putting his tools away. He walked into the kitchen as Asahina stood at the counter, unpacking the handful of bags that they would need for meals for the next few days. “Do you need any help?”

Asahina shook his head. “Mm. I’m fine.”

Xander walked over to stand next to his boyfriend anyway, wrapping his arms around Asahina from behind, pressing a kiss to the back of his neck. “Missed you.”

“Not going to leave you,” Asahina said, reaching back to pat Xander’s bony hip as if to reassure Xander that he wouldn’t disappear.

“I know you won’t. But I still miss you when we’re apart, you know...” Xander pulled out of the hug and stepped up next to Asahina to help him with the groceries. “I’m allowed to miss the man I love once in a while.”

Asahina reached up to stow a few cans up an upper cupboard, turning to look at Xander when the glint of metal caught his eye. He reached up to run his finger over the silver buckle on the collar. “What...?”

Xander reached up as well, resting his hand over Asahina’s. “I wanted a change of pace. I ordered it on the computer.”

“Was the choker no good?”

Xander wrapped his hand around Asahina’s pulling it up to kiss his knuckles. “It was fine. I just wanted something with some more weight. And I can do something special with this.” Xander dropped Asahina’s hand and reached up to unbuckle the collar again, slipping it off to show Asahina what he had just done.

Asahina reached out and ran his fingers along the roughly embossed characters inside the collar. “My name...? Why?”

Xander pulled the collar away and buckled it around his neck once more, the weight of the leather and metal resting against his collar bones. “Because I wanted to be able to feel you on my skin when I’m stuck at work all day. It always makes me feel better to have you close.” Xander touched the cross hanging from the ring at the front. “This is for my dad, but this...” Xander touched the smooth leather, pressing it against his neck, feeling the ridges at the edge of the characters. “This is for you.”

Asahina reached up to press against the same spot, the soft leather on the inside of the collar brushing across Xander’s throat. “Would you like me to make you another one? This one doesn’t scrape your skin?”

Xander smiled and leaned in close to Asahina. “Thank you, but this is good for now. I’ll let you know if it starts hurting.” Xander draped his arms around Asahina’s hips and tilted his head to one side, leaning in for a kiss. This time he opened his mouth and found Asahina had as well. They both deepened the kiss and Xander felt Asahina’s cool fingers running over his back, feeling out his vertebrae.

Asahina just grabbed fistfuls of Asahina’s dress shirt, pulling it halfway out of his pants as he fought for control. “Not now, Ichirou-kun... After the boys are in bed.”

Asahina just nodded and gave Xander a kiss on the forehead before releasing him. “Tonight.” Xander shivered at Asahina’s intense gaze, the pupils in his eyes an even darker brown than normal because of his desire.

“Tonight,” Xander repeated, reluctantly letting go of Asahina’s shirt so he could fix his own.”I’ll look forward to it. Like old times.”

“Not like old times,” Asahina said with a surprising amount of force. “You’re getting help now. Like new times.”

Xander just laughed and rested his forehead against Asahina’s as he laughed himself out. He reached back to help straighten out Asahina’s shirt as he looked into his boyfriend’s deep brown eyes. “Like new times, then.”


End file.
